FALLACIES IN THE MARTIAL ARTS

            Let’s began with the more common fallacies such as “Logical Fallacies.” A logical fallacy is one that has an argument that has some defect in its reasoning. Why have knowledge of logical fallacies? To be able to spot faulty arguments on the part of: 1) credulous behavior, 2) the media, 3) politicians, 4) sales people, 5) martial arts. It keeps us tightly coupled to reality. It basically keeps us from being hoodwinked. The point of an argument is to persuade by giving reasons in support of some conclusion. An argument commits a fallacy when the reasons offered don’t support the conclusion. A fallacious argument may often sound okay. Arguments containing fallacies often have the form a good argument and the appearance of being reasonable. They may also seem persuasive on the surface.

            Too often in the martial arts, you’ll hear instructors, no matter what the black belt rank, make statements. Many instructors make statement with no legitimate prove to what they may have said. The martial arts are full of fallacies. A fallacy is a false or mistaken idea, a plausible argument using false or illogical reasoning. An example to this would be: “I am a world champion!” Another real good fallacy is when an instructor makes claims such as: “all my student’s are world champions in kumite!”

            In the world of business, at least in the martial arts world, claims such as ones that have no logic, often become unchallenged. We are instructed to respect our teachers, our police officers, anyone in some form of authority.  One thing for sure, everyone at one time in their life or still are, has committed a foolish fallacy. Often times, these claims that we make, go unchallenged.  To make false or mistaken idea, a plausible argument using false or illogical reasoning, we may think others will fall victim into believing us. A good example to this would be: “all martial artist are train to beat up people.” First and foremost, anyone that has been a martial artist knows the techniques we practice have self-defense related aspects to them. However, to say that a martial artist is only training to beat up people is a fallacy.

            Fallacy exists in all aspects of life. There is not one day that goes by, that if you read the newspaper, watch the news on one of the local television stations or world new, that the media will not say something to get the viewer’s to believe what is being said has truth to it. In all walks of life, you can find someone, somewhere, that will try to push their illogical reasoning, false or mistaken ideas. Some people are so good at it, that in some cases, they believe theirselves. With understand or recognizing a fallacy will open your eyes to the world.

In many martial art advertisements in their school’s flyer, in a telephone directory, you will often discover various fallacies. Many instructors or who ever takes care of the schools advertising make illogical claims. As a prospective buyer, the individual must educated theirselves, that many businesses will use various methods truth or untruth, illogical reasoning in their ads to get attention from the public. Is this good for advertising? Well to put it clearly, if you join a school that you discover that they have used illogical reasoning to gain practitioners, you must ask yourself this question: “what other senseless lies are they using?” This in return would have to set a red flag in your mind to how legitimate are the other claims in which the school professes.

            In the world of business, the whole idea is to gain profit. If your business shows no profit gain, through advertising for new practitioners you now are at a lose. Lets say it cost on an average to rent, per month $1,700.00 the space in which you are using for your school. Now you will have other fixed cost such as your lights, heat, water, maybe garbage pick, telephone bill. That all could add up to over $2,000.00 per month to run your school. Your school on an average month takes in $1,790.00. You are going to “Out Of Pocket” pay the remaining amount of $90.00. There is no profit. You did not even break even. As mentioned, fallacies are used in all aspects of life. If a person becomes a “Critical Thinker” (requiring careful judgment in your thinking), it will build their acknowledgement of being able to see, hear when a person or persons are using fallacies.

            Most people are not trained in critical thinking. When Hanshi Mayoral was in college, along with his wife, Essien (who is in her doctorates degree at the University of Phoenix and will graduate with her doctor of Management in Organizational Leadership) both learned about fallacies and how important it is to be a critical thinker. In the business world, so often, fallacies are used to grasp your attention. Even in a court of law, fallacies are used. Of course, if you are a critical thinker you can recognizes the fallacies.

            First, we must understand the various fallacies. One that comes to mind is the logical fallacies: a logical fallacy is an argument that has some defect in its reasoning.  Why study logical fallacies? To spot faulty arguments on the part of:

·                    Credulous believers

·                    The media

·                    Politicians

·                    Martial arts

·                    You name it…

·                    To keep tightly coupled to reality.

·                    To keep from being hoodwinked.

Reasons in support of the conclusion:

·                    The point of an argument is to persuade by giving reasons in support of some conclusion.

·                    An argument commits a fallacy when the reasons offered do not support the conclusion.

Fallacious arguments often “sound” okay:

·                    Arguments containing fallacies often have the form a good argument and the appearance of being reasonable.

·                    They may seem persuasive on the surface.

Categorizing logical fallacies:

·                    Through the years, logical fallacies have been thoroughly studied and categorized.

·                    Some especially common fallacies have been given names.

·                    Names are useful shortcuts for identification.

·                    Logical fallacies can be grouped into a number of broad categories.

·                    Some categories include: appeals to emotion, subject changes, mistakes in causation (the cause of something), fallacies of distraction, and problems with induction (the conclusion is probable, but not certain).

Appeals to emotions:

Examples:

·                    Appeal to force.

·                    Appeal to pity.

·                    Appeal to popularity.

Appeal to force (argumentum ad baculum):

·                    Use force or the threat of it to gain agreement on the part of your listener.

Example to this would be:

“If you want to keep learning karate in my school you’d better reconsider your criticisms of the school’s policy.”

Appeal to force:

·                    Coerced agreement is meaningless.

Appeal to popularity (Argumentum Ad populum):

·                    The more practitioners of this school that support the instructor’s proposition, the more likely it is to be correct.

The Ad Hominem fallacy (To the person):

·                    Attacking character of person rather than merits of argument.

Commonly used:

When one martial art school attacks the other on merit of the way in which a instructor teaches, his or her method of promoting his or her practitioner’s, so on, so forth.

Appeal to authority (Argumentum Ad Verecundiam):

·                    This fallacy is one of the more misused fallacies in all the ones just mentioned, because the conclusion must be true because experts or other anointed persons hold it. While sometimes it may be appropriate to cite an authority to support a point, it’s no guarantee of validity.